Musing Mondays (2)

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading. This week’s musing asks…

Do you prefer deep, intellectual, “meaty” books… or light, “fluffy” books? Why? Give us an example of your preferred type of book.

I like books that entertain me, and "deep, intellectual" books rarely do that. I want something fun, something that draws me and makes me laugh or, occassionally, provides a good mope (that's where the Twilight series fits in for me, specifically New Moon - it's great for a good wallow). I particularly like books with a sense of humor, like Jennifer Crusie's Agnes and the Hitman or Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series. A book doesn't have to be "fluffy" to be fun - and I look for fun in my entertainment.

It's Monday, What are you Reading? (14)

It's Monday: What are you Reading? is a weekly meme from BookJourney.

That noise - that banging sound you may hear? That would be my head against the wall. I cannot get this book finished! It has nothing to do with the style or content - it's an excellent book and I've really enjoyed reading it. But it's sooooo loooonnnngggggg!!!! I have to have it finished by Friday, and I'm not sure I can do it. Which is really bad, since I'm leading the book group that's reading it...

So, I'm still reading Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. If you'd like more information about it, please see my last two It's Monday posts, as well as my last two Teaser Tuesday posts. Maybe someday I'll be able to post about a different book.

Bang.  Bang.  Bang.

Waiting on Wednesday: Jane Goes Batty (Jane Bites #2)

"Waiting On" Wednesday is a weekly event, hosted by Breaking the Spine, that spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating.
This week's pre-publication "can't-wait-to-read" selection is:

Jane Goes Batty (Jane Bites #2)
by Michael Thomas Ford
expected publication: February 1, 2011

Jane Austen is a vampire and trying to make it as a writer in the 21st century (and having more trouble than you may think) - she found success with her book in Jane Bites Back, and now she's dealing with the ramifications. I can't read the synopsis below without getting excited and a bit giggly!

From Goodreads:
After two hundred years undead, Jane Austen still has bite. But will her most recent literary success be her last?

Life was a lot easier for Jane when she was just an unknown, undead bookstore owner in a sleepy hamlet in upstate New York. But now the world embraces her as Jane Fairfax, author of the bestselling novel Constance—and she’s having a killer time trying to keep her true identity as the Jane Austen a secret. Even the ongoing lessons in How to Be a Vampire, taught by her former lover Lord Byron, don’t seem to be helping much. Jane can barely focus on her boyfriend, Walter, while keeping him in the dark about her more sanguine tastes.

To make matters worse, Walter announces that his mother is coming for a visit—and she’s expecting Jane to be Jewish. Add in a demanding new editor, a convention of romance readers in period costume, a Hollywood camera crew following Jane’s every move, and the constant threat of a certain bloodsucking Brontë sister coming back to finish her off, and it’s enough to make even the most well-mannered heroine go batty!

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:



•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"Horace Tott spent an uneventful life in Cheshire always intending to write a large book on English magic, but never quite beginning. And so he died at seventy-four, still imagining he might begin next week, or perhaps the week after that."

- Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke

My 100th post! Celebrate with a Giveaway!

Yay, this is my 100th post! I can't believe I managed it. And in honor of that major milestone, I'm going to link you to a truly awesome giveaway! Bookalicious is offering several cool secondary book giveaways and a main prize of a NookColor! How awesome is that! Just check out the info here to find out how to enter, and good luck!

I'm a NookColor!

Thanks for sticking with me through my first 100 posts and here's looking forward to the next 100!

It's Monday: What are you reading? (13)

It's Monday: What are you reading? is a weekly meme from BookJourney.

I am still reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Alas, I'm supposed to have this finished in about a week and a half and I'm having the worst time getting it finished, not because it's bad (on the contrary, I'm quite enjoying it), but because I've been too busy. And now classes are starting back up and I'll have even less time. I'm thinking I'll have to set aside a power-read session and see if I can put a dent in the remaining 700 pages (yeah, and I've already read 300).

For more info on this book, please see my post from last week.

Musing Mondays (1)

Musing Mondays is a weekly meme hosted by Should Be Reading. Today's musing asks:

Where is your favorite place to find new books to read? Blogs? The library? Newspapers? Magazines? In the backs of other books? Suggestions from friends/family? Online bookstores? On the shelves of the local bookstores? (I don’t necessarily mean, ‘where do you find books to buy’ — I mean, ‘where do you discover new titles that you add to your to-be-read lists’?).


I rely on my friends' and fellow librarian classmates' and professors' suggestions, websites like Goodreads or Amazon, lots of fabulous book bloggers, and browsing stores like Half Priced Books and Books A Million or the stacks at my library (or their website).

I'm an equal opportunity book browser!

In My Mailbox

In My Mailbox is a weekly meme hosted by Kristi at The Story Siren. It's a time for everyone to share what books they acquired over the course of the week. I'll share what I received in the mail, bought at bookstores, downloaded, or picked up from the library.

I adore Half Priced Books, particularly their clearance section. I made out pretty well this week:

Ghouls Just Want To Have Fun, by Kathleen Bacus

The Spellman Files, by Lisa Lutz

No Lifeguard on Duty: The accidental life of the world's first supermodel, by Janice Dickenson (my super-role model)

And two cookbooks (yay!):
The Pillsbury Healthy Baking Book: Fresh Approaches to More Than 200 Favorite Recipes, by Pillsbury
Williams-Sonoma Entertaining: Easy Entertaining, by George Dolese
Plus two more books from Books A Million:
Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
I heart books!

Teaser Tuesdays

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:




•Grab your current read
•Open to a random page
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
•BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
•Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

"Poor Mr. Norrell! He had not heard Drawlight's story of how the fairies had washed the people's clothes and it came as a great shock to him. He assured Sir Walter that he had never in his life washed linen - not by magic nor by any other means."  - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, page 86

It's Monday, what are you reading? (12)

It's Monday: What are you reading? is a weekly meme from BookJourney.

I have been reading and will be reading for some time to come:

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
by Susanna Clarke

From Goodreads:
"It's 1808 and that Corsican upstart Napoleon is battering the English army and navy. Enter Mr. Norrell, a fusty but ambitious scholar from the Yorkshire countryside and the first practical magician in hundreds of years. What better way to demonstrate his revival of British magic than to change the course of the Napoleonic wars? Susanna Clarke's ingenious first novel, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, has the cleverness and lightness of touch of the Harry Potter series, but is less a fairy tale of good versus evil than a fantastic comedy of manners, complete with elaborate false footnotes, occasional period spellings, and a dense, lively mythology teeming beneath the narrative. Mr. Norrell moves to London to establish his influence in government circles, devising such powerful illusions as an 11-day blockade of French ports by English ships fabricated from rainwater. But however skillful his magic, his vanity provides an Achilles heel, and the differing ambitions of his more glamorous apprentice, Jonathan Strange, threaten to topple all that Mr. Norrell has achieved. A sparkling debut from Susanna Clarke--and it's not all fairy dust. --Regina Marler"


I'm reading this book for my super-awesome book group. And it's big, a real beast of a book, one I have to have read by January 21st. Here's hopin'! But so far, so good...